EPA Paid Environmental Groups To Smear, Lobby Against Farmers

WA Rep. Dan Newhouse is not amused, nor are farmers and taxpayers. In the continuing seemingly insane federal process of giving grant money to groups who then turn around and attack either the government or other citizens, the EPA is doing it now.

The controversial environmental group known as "What's Upstream" has received federal grant money from the EPA, according to a report in the Columbia Basin Herald.

The group received the funds from what's known as EPA Region 10, which includes most of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The group had media efforts funded by federal grant money. The group utilized this money to help lobby against farmers for more harmful restrictions and regulations.

"What's Upstream" refers to allegations that pesticides, diary pollution and other farming by products end up in streams and rivers, reportedly becoming harmful to people 'downstream. Spurred on by Rep. Newhouse, the group is being investigated for misuse of federal funding and grant money, and Newhouse has demanded they not receive any more until the investigation is finished.

The group is accused of using the money to fund a website and advertisements showing polluted waters, dead fish floating in lakes and rivers, and claiming it's because of harmful farming policies. They're trying to get the EPA to force farmers to have to plant a 100 foot vegetation 'buffer zone' between farmland and streams, rivers and lakes. They claim this will help prevent what they say are harmful chemicals and other wastes from polluting waters.

This is really nothing new, over the years, many environmental groups utilize federal funding and grants to help them turn around and sue the government, trying to get their way when it comes to farming, ecology, land use, and environmental policy.